Vengence
by Zandorv
Summary: Spiderman is dead, and now his son, Ben, seeks revenge.
1. Suprises

A/N This story is a little slow in the beginning but it picks up after a chapter or two.

"Taylor Watson! Are you here or not?" inquired an irritable teacher as Ben Taylor Parker was jerked out of his thoughts. "Yes'm," he replied as respectfully as he could. He always had trouble paying attention in school because he went by his middle name and his mother's maiden name for "safety purposes." "Alright then," she said, marking down a check on her attendance list. "I suggest you pay attention in high school, or they might just mark you as absent or tardy. Justise Watson?" The response was expected; it was the same response Ben's sister, May, had given each day of the year. "Please call me Jessi, ma'am." The teacher's response was also the same, "Justise is your name and Justise is what I will call you." May sighed a little. Soon Ben realized that the teacher was talking again.

Ben let his thoughts slip away from the teacher's voice as the "lesson" began. Today all she really had to talk about was how they were "young adults" now that they were going into high school, and Ben didn't have much patience with those types of talks. He went to school to learn, not to be lectured. As his eyes drifted lazily over towards the window, he saw his best friend, Leigh, sitting right next to him. Unlike Ben, who only went by his middle name at school, Leigh always went by his middle name. His full name was Alex Leigh Storm. "What are you doing here?" he hissed. Leigh was in the ninth grade, so he didn't go to the same school as Ben. He went to the high school Ben was about to go into. Since his school let out a couple days earlier for those who didn't have exams to take, Leigh must have decided to drop by for a visit.

"Watching you munchkins get the same talk I did last year. I swear these teachers must have memorized the exact same speech," replied Leigh, grinning. "Don't worry- this teacher will never notice." Ben knew Leigh was right- Mrs. Wilkins never noticed anything, despite how strict she pretended to be. "Watch this," he said, raising his hand to get the teacher's attention. She paused and raised an eyebrow before responding.

"Yes?" She asked. She never liked being interrupted.

"May I go to the bathroom, ma'am?" he requested, being more polite than Ben had ever thought possible for him.

"Alright." She said, becoming unconcerned.

"Not only will she never notice that I don't belong in her class, she'll also not notice that I won't come back. See you when you're done with your nap here. Nice picture by the way." He said quietly to Ben, getting up to leave. "Thank you very much, Mrs. Wilkins," Leigh said, being so polite it almost seemed mocking.

As he left, Ben looked down at what he had been absent-mindedly drawing. It was a sketch of Spiderman. His mask was missing, and he had Ben's face. He had been drawing pictures like this a lot lately. He had been wanting to make the streets of New York a safe and peaceful place again, following in his father's footsteps. Ben remembered perfectly the day his father had died. The tattered body beneath a tattered suit was his father's, and he had watched as a crowd of weeping people pulled him away. The suit was in a nearby museum, and sometimes Ben could be found there, looking at it as if for advice. He remembered that day and a rage nearly took over him as he remembered his father's killer. He quickly repressed it, reminding himself he would never be back; he had probably died looking for a refuge. He lost track of time, and didn't notice it when the bell rang. However, he got up as the rest of the class did, carefully packing the picture into his binder, which he put into his backpack. He was glad it was his last day to say "goodbye" to Mrs. Wilkins- she hadn't liked him since the time he had accidentally spilled his lunch on her when Derek pushed him. He presently saw Derek half-running down the halls, wanting to get out and make sure Ben didn't get away. Derek was angry with him, more so than he was with the rest of the school. At fifteen, he was the oldest person in the middle school, and he had no friends there. His friends were all college students- anyone who would get him into places he wasn't allowed or buy him beer he considered a friend. Everyone else (or rather, anyone smaller than him) was a punching bag.

Ben decided to hide as long as he could to avoid a fight inside the building, but as always, Derek found him when he left it. "Watson!" he yelled, trying to chase Ben and not particularly caring that he wasn't running. "You're going to pay for what you did today!" He said it dramatically, and Ben rolled his eyes.

"It's not my fault you couldn't keep your balance." Derek turned a little red.

"I didn't lose my balance; you tripped me!" he yelped in an attempt at a retort.

"No I didn't," Ben replied, but he knew it wouldn't help. Derek was just looking for some reason to fight him before Ben moved on to ninth grade and he was held back again. Derek couldn't think of a reply to Ben's last comment, so he just punched him in the side of the head. Ben didn't have time to react before he felt another hit like a battering ram slam into his stomach. He fell to his knees, and received a kick in the face over his right eye. He then felt another punch, this time to the eye, and three more punches in the head and face. Then another kick, this time to the exact same place in his stomach that he had recently been hit. He gasped and doubled over in pain, clutching the spot. Before landing another blow, Derek chose to say, "You fight like my grandma! But I guess you can't help it, you're dad probably never fought any better." Ben knew he said it because he found out that comments on his father made him mad, but he didn't care. It still made him angry. Even if Derek didn't know who Ben's father was, he knew that he was dead. Trying to regain his breath, he stood up and gasped out as threateningly as he could, "Just shut up." It was all his breath would allow. Still clutching his stomach with his left hand, he hit Derek hard in the nose with his right. Derek was stunned and angered by Ben's reaction and didn't recover until after another punch, this time in the eye. He swung wildly at Ben, and even though it was the same speed as all his other blows, it now seemed slow. Ben caught it easily and rolled him over his shoulder, landing him hard on his back. Ben had never done that before. In fact, he had only ever seen it on television. Before Derek could react, Ben was on top of him, throwing a flurry of strikes. His breath was back again, and he took the opportunity to yell, "You don't say a _word_ about him!" He hit Derek in the nose again, and there was an audible noise. He had broken it. Derek put his open palms up over his face and closed his eyes in defense. Because of this, he didn't see what happened before Ben's next blow. Ben stopped it, astonished, before he pierced through Derek's head. A strange, hard blade was sticking from his wrist. He stared back at it and did the only thing he could think to do- flexed downwards, the opposite direction he had to flex to shoot his web. It retracted back into his arm. He stood up and for the first time noticed a small crowd that had been watching him fight. They had been so engrossed in it that they had somehow not noticed his blade. The only one who might have noticed was May, who was in it. He motioned with his head, which throbbed painfully when he jerked it, that they needed to go. As they left, he turned his head back when he heard Derek say something like, "Yeah, I knew you'd run as soon as the fight got tough! Come back, you pansy!" and wondered vaguely how someone could be so stupid, but he didn't really care at the moment. He turned back to his sister.

"Did you see that?" he asked as they walked home.

"Yeah," she responded, "what was that?" He looked at May before responding. She looked a lot like her mother, with her mother's face, beautiful green eyes, and red hair. The only features of hers that weren't her mother's were her teeth and mouth, which were her father's, as well as her feet, but only Ben knew about the latter.

"No. It just… happened. Our dad couldn't do that, could he?"

"No,"

"Didn't think so."

"Do you think you could do it again?"

"I don't know, let me try…" Ben flexed his wrist down again, and sure enough, the blade quickly slid out. It was about the size and shape of a punching dagger, and it appeared to be made out of bone. He was still inspecting it when May tapped him, and he looked up. A man was walking down the street near them. He quickly made the blade retract, and the man didn't notice a thing. After he passed, May said, "Something similar happened to me last week. I was pointing at a bulletin board on the wall at lunch and a tray fell. I got tense at the noise, and I thought I noticed something come out of that finger. I looked at the bulletin board later and there was a slit in it, but it could have been from anything and I didn't find anything behind the hole, so I assumed it was my imagination. I hadn't had much sleep the night before. But I guess it might have been something… let me try." She pointed at the ground in front of her and flexed her finger, and something small shot out from under her fingernail. She and Ben knelt down to inspect it. It was about three inches long, and a bit thinner than her fingernail. It gradually curved into a sharp point at the end, and it was covered in a thick liquid. "What do you think that is?" Ben asked. Immediately after he finished the sentence, the thing dissolved into the liquid. Surprised, he was relieved he didn't touch it. He didn't know what it might have done to his hand.

They didn't speak again until after they got home. They were too busy thinking.

As soon as Ben got to the apartment, he snuck into his room and looked into a mirror to inspect his cuts and bruises from the fight. As he stared into it, a face developing into an image of his father stared back at him. He had shocking sapphire blue eyes that were much darker than his father's light blue ones. His hair was almost jet-black, and his face was slightly thinner than Peter Parker's had been. Aside from those few things, he looked much like his father. He had the same thin body, the same nose that was in between strong and delicate. There was currently drying blood coming from that nose, and he felt it, trying to remember when it had been hit. He retrieved a rag from the bathroom and wiped the blood off from under his nose and over his eye. He used water from the sink to wash the coppery taste of blood out of his moth and inspected the rest of himself. There was a black eye budding around his left eye and a large bruise on his right cheek. He lifted his shirt and identified another bruise on his torso where he had been both hit and kicked. Looking at himself he thought, _"It looks like I lost the fight. I wish I could see Derek tomorrow." _He grinned at the thought, knowing that Derek probably looked a lot worse than he did. There was nothing he could do about the bruises. He would have to think of a suitable excuse later because now he saw Leigh walking in the room with May. He dropped his shirt and took the picture out of his backpack, then pinned it to the wall with all his other Spiderman pictures and posters. The pictures trailed a little bit into May's side of the room, though Ben tried to keep it on his side. He knew May wouldn't really mind, but he tried to keep them on his side anyway out of consideration.

When Leigh saw him, he said with surprise, "Did you get hit by a bus?" This was his way of asking what had happened.

"I got in a fight with Derek again. That guy has it out for me, I swear. I'm not sure why either." Ben replied, grinning at his best friend.

"So you mean you got beat up again?" In Leigh's opinion, if you had a single scratch when you were finished with a fight, you got beat up. This time, though, Ben did look like he had been beaten up.

"No, actually, I wanted to talk about that…" Ben replied, becoming more serious. "At first a really _was_ getting beat up, but then he got me mad and something happened." Leigh didn't have to ask how Derek had gotten Ben angry; he was too smart to let himself get angered by most things. There was only one way Derek could have gotten him angry. "All of a sudden, not only could I keep up with him, I could _beat_ him. It was like no contest. Everything he did seemed slow and he seemed weak."

"That's no mystery; you're probably just developing your powers. Mine developed gradually from birth, and yours are developing suddenly, right now. It's just because of the different kinds of mutations we have, I'm sure." Leigh commented. He was waiting to see why this was so important. Ben would probably figure it was just the full extent of his powers coming out. He and May had been able to shoot their own natural webs since birth, plus having the famous "spider sense," but his real powers must have just recently unlocked. Leigh's powers had developed differently, and strangely.

He had been slowly developing his father's power over fire to the point where he could make a flame a little bigger than a candle light come from his fingers, when his powers changed dramatically due to an accident. He had been about three years old, and he electrocuted himself at the day care center he went to because a couple of the older children had dared him to stick a paperclip into the light socket. Even at three, Leigh was not one to back down from a challenge, and he did not consider or even know the consequences of such and action. Ever since then, his powers had changed into control over electricity. He could still make small fires, but that power hadn't developed past where it was when he was three. He could now generate enough electricity to knock a person out, and it was continuing to slowly develop.

Thinking about this, Leigh waited for Ben to respond to his question. "That's not the strange part." So there _was_ something. "Look at this." Ben flexed his wrist downwards as he had earlier and the blade shot out. Leigh gaped at it, knowing that Spiderman had never been able to do that. He thought for a minute, trying to figure out why this might happen. He came to a possible answer. "Maybe when you were conceived, the mutation your dad had just continued to mutate. Maybe it alters itself when the mutated person has kids." He shrugged, "It's just a guess, but you never know. It's the best I could come up with."

"Something odd happened to me recently, too." May commented. She shot a dart out of her finger on to the floor, and Leigh inspected it before it dissolved. "I'm guessing your genes have mutated, too." He said, shrugging his shoulders again. "You wanna go study that liquid?" he asked.

"I'm not touching it." Ben objected.

"You don't have to." Leigh responded. He picked up a pencil that was in a side pocket in Ben's nearby backpack and dipped it in the liquid. They went to the high school and found out, using a few lab rats that Ben felt kind of sorry for, that it was a kind of venom. It wasn't an acidic substance because it didn't burn through or dissolve anything but whatever the hard substance that came out of May's hand was. They weren't sure why this was, but it didn't really matter. The important part to them was that it was some type of venom.

They were out of the lab and back to the apartment by evening, playing video games. Ben was just about to finish May's character off when their mother walked in and said, "Get off that thing and come to dinner."

"Just one second, Mom,"

"No, now. You know if I don't stand over you and make you get off you never will."

Ben sighed and turned off the game, then began to walk to the kitchen.

"As much as I'd love to join you for dinner, I believe that I am expected at home." Leigh commented as they left the room. He looked at his watch. "Ooh, looks like I'm due in two minutes." He ran out of the room, moving so fast that even Ben and May could hardly see him. He bolted down the street, making papers fly out of people's hands as they yelped in surprise and confusion. He would make it home on time.

That night, as Ben and May were both lying in their separate beds, one of them was still awake. Ben stared at the ceiling, thinking. After a moment, he suddenly sat up and turned on the lamp next to him, and then he took a piece of paper and started to sketch.


	2. A Long Summer

The next day, Ben woke May up instead of the reverse, which was usually what happened. "Wake up! Look at this!" he whispered, trying to wake her but not their mother. She woke up quickly, without mumbling or muttering. She waited a minute, letting herself wake up, before responding.

"What is it?" she asked without a trace of sleepiness. Ben was a little disappointed. He had been looking forward to seeing May sleepy, since he never woke up before her. He inwardly laughed, thinking _"That's May for you."_

Ben then took the pictures he had spent most of the night designing and drawing and showed them to May. He grinned as her eyes grew wide with realization. After a minute, she grinned too. Sketched onto the pieces of paper were two figures, one of them obviously May, the other just as obviously Ben. They were both in suits almost exactly like Spiderman's, with only small adjustments made to the emblems on their chests. For May, instead of a general spider shape, was a black widow spider with a dark red hourglass on its large abdomen. For Ben, there was a large spider that almost looked like a tarantula with two blades sprouting from the thorax. May looked at them for a minute, and then said, "That's too flashy. People will be able to see us from a mile away. They need to be darker and plainer."

"But-" Ben began to protest.

"It should look more like this." May interjected, coloring over Ben's colored pencil with marker. She took up a dark purple marker and colored everything but the black widow symbol that color. Then she made Ben's spider symbol that color and capped that marker, setting it down. She then picked up a black marker and colored the rest of Ben's suit with it. "We should look like this. That way it will be harder to see us in the dark… it'll be easier to sneak up on people."

"Alright, then," Ben said grudgingly. He knew May was right. She was always right. The only fault he ever thought his father might have had was making his suit too bright.

After a few minutes of silence, Ben felt hunger pains for the first time that day. He hadn't noticed anything since he woke up in his excitement. He looked at the clock on their wall and said, "Well, it's almost noon- did we really sleep that late? - And we haven't even had breakfast." He heard his stomach rumble as he said it. He and May both smiled a little and then proceeded into the kitchen and made themselves sandwiches, where Leigh had broken into their apartment again and was already eating a sandwich. Ben half rolled his eyes and said, mockingly stern, "You're getting way too comfortable here… it's not polite to come in without knocking." He knew that people coming in uninvited was one of his mother's pet peeves, and though he was making a joking point, he was being half serious, saying with his eyes, _"Please knock next time…"_ Leigh, though Ben knew he understood, chose to pretend not to, and just glanced at Ben mischievously before biting into his sandwich again. He never talked when eating because he was so busy stuffing his face. Sighing inwardly, Ben walked past him to the refrigerator to see what was left there. He was halfway through his second one, a turkey and cheese sandwich, when their mother walked in the room. She glanced reproachfully at Leigh, knowing what he had done intuitively, and decided to ignore him as a "punishment." Ben often wondered how, as intelligent as his mother was, she failed to notice that Leigh honestly didn't care when he was being ignored. As Ben had this thought for the millionth time, she announced that she had a surprise for her children.

"Now that you're both high schoolers, you can handle the responsibility of having what you've both been begging for since you were five." Ben and May looked at each other, slightly confused. They weren't sure what their mother was talking about. She pushed the newspaper towards them and they both leaned towards it, perplexed. Part of the ads section was highlighted. Ben grinned as he saw what was highlighted on the page. He looked up at his mother.

"But this is a no-pets apartment." He said questioningly.

"Oh, I don't think it'll matter too much." His mother responded vaguely. Ben grinned again, knowing not to question his mother's methods any further.

"You know, we could go to the pound to get one. It would be cheaper, plus we'd be saving an animal," May suggested, "and that way we wouldn't have to run all over the place." Ben froze when she said that.

"But- but there are _dogs_ at the pound!" Ben protested, trying to stifle the panic he heard rising in his voice.

"Oh, Ben, I thought you'd gotten over that." His mother commented sympathetically. Ben stiffened a little as he realized that he had seemed so afraid.

"I- I just meant that… some of them are vicious, and they wouldn't be good to bring home," he explained, knowing how weak it sounded when he said it. He sensed the irritation in his sister's voice at his exasperating effort to seem less afraid when she next spoke.

"Good, then, we won't bring a vicious dog home." May said mischievously. Her mother nodded, playing along, as Ben tried to think of a protest. He stammered syllables with no idea what he was going to say as she and Leigh, who hadn't said a word due to mouth fullness, half dragged, half-carried him into the car. He could see the exasperated annoyance in May's eyes and the almost mean, definitely mischievous, look in Leigh's eyes. Ben thought they were being particularly mean this morning. Had they forgotten that he wasn't just afraid, but _terrified_, of large dogs? They may have, he had avoided them completely for years…

As they all loaded into the car and buckled up, Ben remembered why his terror with dogs had started. He had never liked dogs, he had always been afraid of them, even as a small child, and he had had several incidents with them as a very young child where careless, playful dogs had scared him and knocked him down, but he never became truly _terrified_ of them until he had almost been killed by one when he was four. He vaguely remembered the incident, and even though he now knew logically that most large dogs were not like that, and that it was just that particular incident that caused his fear, he couldn't shake it. It seemed ingrained into his instincts, and it was almost bad enough to be a phobia. The only thing that kept it from being one was that he didn't mind them in pictures or on television, only in reality.

Mentally berating himself for both his fear itself and concentrating on it, he shoved his thoughts away and thought about what animal he wanted. Maybe a cat, he'd always liked them.

Ben had decided that a cat was what he was going to get when he felt the car stop at the pound. He found he wasn't nervous until after they walked into the long room filled with animals. He gulped and stiffened slightly, willing himself to look at the dogs. He had to defeat this fear somehow, and looking at the dogs seemed to be a good first step. Ben could barely hear what the others were saying as he walked slowly past the dogs. Most of them were sleeping and weren't that much trouble, but he always had to fight the urge to back up against the wall and remain motionless when he passed one that barked at them. He eventually became fairly relaxed and wasn't even paying much attention to the dogs (for him) when a giant pit bull barked ferociously at him. He let out an involuntary yelp and jumped backwards before catching himself and forcing himself to watch the cages again, shaking. As soon as he realized he was shaking, he forced himself to stop by clenching his fists and stuffing them into his jeans pockets. Finally, he was tired of looking at nothing but dogs. "Excuse me, sir?" He asked the man at the desk in the other room. "Do you have any cats or kittens here?" The man, obviously irritated that he had to get up, took his hands off his large stomach and put them on his seat arms, using them to get up.

"Sure do," he said, apparently trying to sound cheerful and failing. "Over here." The man walked Ben nearly to the end of the hallway, where a group of six kittens and two cats were clustered together in one cage. Ben didn't know they could put so many animals in one small cage; he thought it would have been against regulations or something. As soon as he walked up, one of the cats, a long haired white one, hissed as him, pulled its ears back, and backed away. It swiped at him as he examined the other cats. The other adult cat was obviously the mother of at least three of the kittens, and apparently the adopted mother of the other three. The adult cat mewed at him before simply curling up into a ball and going to sleep, at which point Ben decided to investigate the kittens. Two of them were orange tabby cats similar to their mother. One of them had a white splattering on its nose and one white paw. The other had fur that melted from orange to white on its stomach, nose, and all four paws. The white on its underbelly was connected to the white on its nose by white on its chin and the underside of its neck. The third kitten was a gray tabby with no white on it at all. The remaining three were of different breeds: a calico kitten that looked cautiously at him, a small plain white kitten that didn't pay attention to him because it was too busy playing with the remaining kitten, a playful Ocicat. It wasn't hard to tell which kitten he was going to take. The Ocicat was a soft tawny with brown spots, and it rolled playfully with the white kitten until it noticed Ben, at which point it walked straight towards him and mewed confidently, rubbing its cheek against the cage.

"I'll get that one, please," Ben said, pointing at it. The man rolled his eyes and took the kitten out of the cage and tossed it at Ben. This obviously wasn't the job he'd always wanted… or maybe he was just having a bad day.

It hadn't occurred to Ben that May might get a dog until she walked up to him with a puppy bundled in her arms. It was a lively little black lab with a white crest on its chest that Ben couldn't believe she was getting. He thought about mentioning something that would grow up to be smaller, but decided not to. This was his sister's chance to get whatever pet she wanted, and Ben wasn't about to ruin it for her because of his stupid fear. He was wondering what it would be like to be afraid of something that lived with you when he realized May was talking to him. "… so it's smaller than a real lab, it'll probably only grow to be about fifteen inches or so. I hope you like him." "Uh… yeah…" Ben said. He recognized as she said this, even if she didn't show it in her voice or face, that she was making a sacrifice for him in getting a smaller dog. She liked big dogs much better. He smiled inwardly and decided not to mention it- May didn't like being complemented.

"Hey! I want one!" Leigh complained as they returned to the car.

"Oh, shut up, Leigh," retorted May. "You've already got that little squirrel of yours."

"She had babies recently." commented Leigh, seemingly forgetting the original premise of their conversation. "Not sure how, I don't usually let her out of the house. Maybe Ty did it." Ty was Leigh's five-year-old little brother, and he often got into Leigh's things, to his extreme irritation.

"Well then, now you'll have a whole bunch of little squirrels," May said, amused. She had never really been able to see Leigh shouldering any real responsibility like raising an animal, and she had even more trouble seeing him shoulder the responsibility of raising a bunch of baby animals.

"Hey, can I see your cat, Ben?" Leigh asked, suddenly changing the subject. He sometimes had trouble staying on one subject for a long time. He then plucked the kitten out of Ben's hands instead of waiting for a response. The kitten started to purr even more loudly than it had already been and started to rub its cheeks up against Leigh's arm. It seemed to like him a lot. In fact, when Ben reached to get the small kitten back, it dug its claws into Leigh's shirt, trying to stay attached. Wishing his new kitten liked him that much, Ben spent the rest of the trip trying to keep it from wandering towards Leigh all the time.

On the way home, they stopped at a pet store to buy food for the animals while Leigh got a bag of mixed nuts at a nearby grocery store. Their mother checked out collars and leashes, as well as litter boxes for the cat and other essential needs while they got the food. May found the dog food within five minutes, shoved it into Ben's arms, and whispered, "I'm going somewhere to get materials… distract mom if she wants to leave before I'm back…" then she added vaguely, "Oh, and only get about two week's worth of cat food supply." and wandered off before Ben could ask her why. Grumbling about girls who didn't explain themselves, Ben returned to his search for cat food.

Twenty minutes later, his mother told him that it was time to go. Her cart was full, and Ben took more time than he really needed to find space for the food, trying to think of an excuse. When he straightened up from putting the food in the space between the floor and the main basket of the cart, one caught his eye. "Hey, mom, let's go give the dog a bath." Ben suggested, his eyes fixed on the pet bathing area. "I think that it'd be a really good idea." Immediately after saying this he regretted it: his mother would want May to do it; it was her dog. His eyes darted from the bathing area to his mother, expecting her to ask him where May was. However, instead of going to look for May, Ben's mother gave him a look of realization.

"I need to go buy dog shampoo!" she exclaimed. "I forgot!" She wasn't really looking at Ben anymore as much as she was looking through him, trying to remember what else she may have forgotten. "Oh, and a brush for the dog, too, and…" she walked off, listing the things she had forgotten to get, which were few. Ben sighed with relief, knowing that it would take his mother at least a half hour to get those few items, but hoped that May would be back soon. She didn't come back for another twenty minutes, at which point he turned towards her, frustrated.

"What took you?" He asked her, scowling,

"It was a ways away, I had to get something to cover my face with, and it took me forever to convince them to make it. It was going to be super-expensive, but I dragged the price down." She responded, a hint of pride in her last statement. "I also got a sample of the material." She added, pulling out a square. Ben took it, stretching it out and feeling it.

"It feels like that Under Armor stuff." Ben observed. "It's almost… shiny… though." He added, trying to describe what it looked like. The square of material was black, and it did indeed look and feel exactly like Under Armor, with the exception of the fact that it was slightly glossy. Ben tried to pull the stuff to rip it. It wouldn't rip. "Where did you find out about this stuff? What is it?" He asked, bemused.

"I just asked the people at the place I was at for a good material for a superhero costume. I made sure to mention "superhero" to persuade them to make it. It is like Under Armor, and it's kind of a new development. It's breathes so it's cool and you won't get to hot in it, but it won't keep you too cold in the winter, and it's pretty hard to rip, though it will if you try hard enough. It stretches pretty well, and it's durable enough. It lasts a long time. When they make ours I think the material will be slightly thicker, but pretty much the same." She said this all fairly quickly, and Ben looked at her, bemused. Suddenly, a thought struck him. Where was she, exactly? He voiced this question and got the vaguest answer he had ever heard in his life. He wasn't even sure of what she had said. He decided to let the subject rest, though he was now very suspicious, and he wasn't quite sure what of. When they left, he walked to the car in silence, thinking of where she could have possibly been.

When they got home, their mother insisted on having them name the pets together in the kitchen while the cat and dog "got to know each other." Surprisingly, they both got along every well, and even started playing with each other soon. Their mother started suggesting ridiculous names for each pet (as wonderful as Mary Jane Parker was, she had always had the most horrible taste in pet names) while Ben silently pondered the name of his cat. His mother was suggesting "Scratchykins" when he came up with it.

"I'm naming him Kovu," he said simply. His mother looked slightly disappointed, but then turned with resolve to May, sure that she would pick a suggested name.

"I've already got a name, mom, don't even start." She said, looking halfway between amused and annoyed. "His name obviously has to be Crest." She said, pointing at the moon-like white crest on the puppy's chest.

"Oh," was all she responded for a second. Then she looked at them both and said, "Well, it's a thousand times better than anything I could have come up with." She was fully aware that her pet names were atrocious. "Now that that's done…" she looked at her watch and jumped. "It's nearly five o'clock! I've got dinner with some friends," she explained to them, handing them a twenty dollar bill from her pocket. "Get a pizza or something and don't tear the place down while I'm gone. I don't like it when you two go out, but I know you will anyway, so if you do, just be back before eight. Oh, and set up the litter box and all that while I'm gone." With that she gave them each a brief hug and kiss on the cheek, picked up her purse, and walked out the door.

As soon as the door closed, May's face split into a wide grin. She held up a pair of bags that contained their new costumes and handed the one that contained his. "Well," she said expectantly, "try it on!"

Five minutes later, they were each clad in dark purple and black, looking at each other through masks. Ben looked down at himself in the mirror. Not an inch of skin was visible. "It fits perfectly," he said, moving in it a little to test it. "And it's really comfortable, too." He flexed his fingers experimentally, and then had a thought. "What about the blades? Won't they rip the material?" he asked, looking up at his sister. Not an inch of skin with the exception of her fingers up to the second joint. This was for the darts that would come from her fingertips.

"No, try it." she responded. "There are little slits so that the material won't rip." It was true. After a moment's silence Ben asked,

"So, when do we start training?"

"Training?"

"Yeah, everyone has to train, it's part of the whole superhero thing."

"Oh."

Within a week, all three of them were training every day in a dump that no one ever visited. Leigh, having had his powers all his life, didn't need much practice and spent most of his time watching Ben and May.

Odd things happened to the twins over that summer.

A month into the summer, Ben had woken up to see a giant cocoon on the other side of the room. He had yelled in surprise and been so shocked he spent a half hour looking for May and thinking something had happened to her before it occurred to him that she might be _in_ the cocoon. The next day, May had explained to him what had happened while she was inside. Most of her skin had fallen off and then replaced itself. She had been asleep the whole day, and had only figured this out by feeling her own skin on the floor of the dark cocoon and seeing it when she had broken out. They found that her skin became much like an exoskeleton when she concentrated on it, and became normal again when she concentrated again. This continued to happen once every month, and it became a regular experience.

In another incident, the trio was practicing and Ben felt a dull, pounding pain on his shins, arms, and shoulder blades. For a minute, nothing happened to alleviate the pain and it remained dull and pounding. Then, accompanied by a burst of intense pain, blades similar to the ones that came from his wrists popped from his shoulders, knees, and elbows. He dropped to his knees, yelling in surprise and pain. Even as he did so, the pain returned to a dull pound. It left as quickly as it had come. The blades from his elbows were coming from his forearms, parallel to his hands. The ones from his knees were the ones that were coming from his shins and were the most painful, and the ones from his shoulders were sticking up, curving slightly and a little higher than the top of his head.

The only real excitement over the summer was the time they made headline news by stopping an armed man from robbing a bank. It had been happening close to their apartments and they decided to give it a try. A minute later, Ben, May, and Leigh were masked and busting open the bank door. It wasn't really that exciting. Leigh was the first one to get to the man, who had been so absorbed in getting his money that he didn't notice quickly enough that they had come in. By the time he had turned around, Leigh had aimed a punch at the man's face. Until that day, Ben hadn't known that Leigh had his own costume. It was green with a blue stripes: two that went from under his arms to his little toe on either side of his body, two on the inside of his legs that came down to his big toe, and two that came from the side of his neck to the end of his middle two fingertips. There was an emblem on his chest: two jagged blue Bs with a blue thunderbolt running horizontally thorough their middle. The mask was green with the exception of another blue thunderbolt, which streaked down from near his left eye on one side of the mask to the other side of the mask under his ear. It came up from his chin to right above his eyebrows, where his dirty blonde hair came down over the rest. The eye holes were small enough so that only his emerald eyes were visible. Unlike Ben's mask, on which his nose made a slight bulge in the center, not a single facial feature was discernable on Leigh's face. At the time, the mask had been pointed upwards at the face of a criminal, and the blue-and-green fist was flying towards him. The man was knocked off his feet and his gun flew out of his hand. He had been knocked cold by the punch, which Ben suspected had been charged with a slight amount of electricity.

The more exciting part of the adventure was seeing their masked faces on the front of the newspaper, with "New Heroes?" written as a headline the next day. Leigh was in the middle, with May on his left and Ben on his right. They were walking out of the bank as two uniformed men handcuffed the thief in the background. Ben looked at the report with interest. It read:

Yesterday at 4:32 PM there was mass panic at a local bank as an

armed man pointed a gun at staff member Nathan Mitchell and

demanded whatever money they had, saying that he would leave

once he was satisfied. A nearby pedestrian phoned the police,

but the call turned out to be an unnecessary measure, as three

masked figures (shown above) arrived at the scene and knocked

the criminal to the floor, rendering him unconscious. The man

was handcuffed as soon as the police arrived. Here we have an

eyewitness account of the event. "It was amazing," comments

Mitchell. "The green one ran so fast it was all a blur, and the other

two looked just like Spiderman. They couldn't've been older than,

like, twelve, but, man, they were amazing!" the aforementioned

"green one," (center figure), who has most often been called the

"Green Racer" for his speed, was accompanied by a girl and a boy,

now often called "Spider-boy" and "Spider-girl," have been rumored

to be either the actual children of Spiderman, or young imposters

only pretending to have any powers at all. "Yeah, the green man had

powers for sure, but I dunno 'bout those 'spider-kids.'" comments

one unbelieving witness, "Didn't do much during the robbery." Though

this man was quite accurate, many believe the two children to be

the actual (cont. on G8)

The rest of the article was theories on who Ben and May were, with a little speculation on Leigh and a little more detail on the attempted robbery.

When he finally finished reading it aloud to May, his first words were "No powers? Of course we have powers, why else would we be out there? And twelve… I'm thirteen! I'm going into high school!"

"Calm down, Ben." May said. "You can't blame them for being cynical, they never actually saw us use our powers, and a lot of kids would want to be like Spiderman."

"Fine, side with them." Ben muttered, wishing he had a better comeback. May ignored this.

"Plus, how could they know how old we are? We probably looked pretty short compared to that robber. He was pretty tall."

"Yeah, well…" replied Ben grumpily. He was always grumpy before breakfast.


	3. Home Sweet Home

A/N: When I started this story, I didn't really have much of an idea of what Leigh's family life was going to be like. I thought it was going to pretty much be normal, but then my editor screamed "ANGST" at me before I started chapter three. The story darkens from here. Alot. I think I might have gone a bit overboard with this chapter. Also, please please please PLEASE reveiw if you read. I love really critical reveiws because it helps me improve me writing, so constructive criticism is very appriciated!

Only a block from where Ben and May were talking, Leigh was beginning to read the article. He was the first up. Ty was on the other side of the room from Kayla in the only bedroom. Both were sleeping. He could hear his mother's snores from the couch, and could see the beer and wine bottles around her. A beer bottle had fallen from her hand onto the floor and spilled everywhere. He would have to clean that up before he made breakfast. He did as soon as he finished the article, throwing away the rest of the bottles and looking sadly at his mother's face. She had once been beautiful, but four years of severe stress and alcohol abuse had much faded and distorted her beauty. It had also taken away the kindness she had once possessed… Leigh sighed and forced his thoughts towards breakfast. He opened the dirty refrigerator door and looked inside. There was enough for all of them to have eggs… he wanted to give Ty and Kayla a treat today. It was usually cereal; sometimes stale cereal. His mother spent most of the money she earned as a waitress on alcohol, and the meager money Leigh could make on whatever jobs he could get was barely enough to support

The Storm apartment was not as clean or nice as the Parker apartment. There was only one tiny bedroom and one disgusting, dingy bathroom. The living area was filthy with one busted couch that their mother slept on every night. Attached to that was the kitchen, which was as dirty as the rest of the apartment and sometimes smelled twice as bad. Leigh remembered when they had one of the nicest apartments he had ever seen, but that was before his father died of cancer. Ben and he had shared the grief of the deaths of their fathers. Grief for his best friend was one of the things that kept Peter from fighting as well as usual, which had gotten him killed. Leigh still wasn't sure if Ben knew this. His father, Johnny Storm, had died just after his youngest son, Tyson, had been born. Leigh remembered his father well, as did his two years younger sister, Kayla, but Leigh was the only father little Ty had ever had.

Tyson had always been small and skinny for his age, with the same blonde hair as Leigh that was only a shade lighter due to age, and the large, sky blue eyes of his father. He looked up to his big brother more than anything, as a protector and a father. To Ty, Leigh was Superman. In his opinion, Leigh was the perfect person, always kind to everyone, powerful enough to beat anyone who wanted to hurt Ty (except maybe grownups!), and he always listened to what people wanted to say, no matter how little they were. He never got mad and would explain things when you didn't understand, plus he could fix anything.

Of course, Ty's views were not accurate, but that was the kind of person Leigh tried to be around Ty. He certainly loved the boy enough to want to be that kind of person for him. Ty was an energetic, playful, and creative boy once you got to know him, but the problem was not many people did get to know him. He was shy and timid around large groups of people, and his teachers said he had "trouble interacting with the other children." Leigh had seen, on the many days that he went to pick Ty up, that he was almost always sitting by himself, drawing or sometimes simply staring longingly over at the other boys, who played games until their mothers came to pick them up. Leigh had urged Ty to go talk to the other boys, but he never did. On rare, horrible occasions, he saw Ty being picked on or beaten up by some older kids, and sometimes by kids his same age. This never happened any more though, because Leigh decided that if the child looked three grades or more ahead of Ty, he deserved to be picked on by an older kid himself. One day, he had seen a large, rotund fifth grade boy pushing the small, skinny Ty down repeatedly. Leigh was going to grab the kid and shove him aside to take Ty home until he saw the boy punch Ty in the exact center of his face, causing his nose to bleed. Ty didn't see as he gave the boy his own nosebleed to deal with, and only answered that he had gotten rid of the bad kid when Ty asked what had happened, with dirt on his face that was streaked with thin tear lines and a sniffling nose. When he saw Ty's condition, he was sorely tempted to go and give that other kid three or four bleeding areas to deal with, but he just picked Ty up and carried him home to clean him up.

The teachers often weren't much help with Ty's issues at school. They were distant with him and said that he had "a lot of trouble paying attention. He's an intelligent boy, but he asks irrelevant questions during class and often doesn't know the subject we're speaking about at the time." A few even turned a blind eye to the bullies that picked on such a small child, which Leigh loathed them for.

Leigh fumed silently while thinking about this over the sizzling eggs before taking a deep breath and calming himself. He turned his thoughts to his sister Kayla, and immediately hoped that she hadn't set the bed on fire in her sleep again. He silently stifled a snicker when he thought about this.

Kayla, a tall girl who was the only one in the family not to inherit her mother's blonde hair but her father's dark brown, often had trouble controlling her fire powers in her sleep. She often set the bed on fire and didn't wake up until Leigh soaked her with water, at which point she woke up, gasping. This lack of control embarrassed Kayla almost as much as it amused Leigh, and it was the one thing about him that she got angry with him over. Leigh wasn't anywhere near as close to Kayla as he was to Ty, but they were still very close. He wasn't a father figure to her, she had known Johnny Storm and that was the only father she would ever need, but he was a comforting big brother. Escapades with their mother often made Kayla cry, though she was almost never the one being hit, and Leigh was always there to comfort her when it was all over, and he would sometimes work extra just so that he could bring home an ice cream cone or a great big cookie in a bag, to her extreme delight. She was energetic and talkative, with sparkling emerald eyes that were often just as animated as her voice and a slender, tan body that would never have much fat or muscle, no matter how much she ate or worked out. She wasn't concerned much with fashion like the rest of the girls in her grade, but in basketball. She would often beg to play it with Leigh, and would sometimes even beat him, which he always encouraged her about. The only problem with her basketball was her temper, which unleashed itself not if she lost a game, but if the referee really was biased or someone cheated or fouled her without punishment. She was very competitive during the game, but afterwards if she worked her hardest she almost always was happy with the results of the game. Leigh wished desperately that she could play on a real team and watch more games, but they didn't have the money for it. Kayla knew this and didn't begrudge anyone, but he knew she wished that she could be on a team, too. She fit in at school much better than Ty did, though she sometimes had trouble staying out of detention. She had the same sense of humor as Leigh, and some of her teachers were not as tolerant as Leigh's were.

The last time she had gotten in trouble, she had implied that her history teacher had the IQ of a flea (Which Leigh thought she probably did) and the teacher had gone on a rampage, yelling about smart-alecs who don't know anything about being a teacher or an adult and giving her a week's worth of detention. As it turned out, the teacher had found out that morning that her favorite cat, Snuffles, had been run over and was quite distraught over it all morning. It had not been a good day to insult the teacher.

Leigh reminisced fondly over this until he saw a sleepy-eyed Ty shuffle into the room, rubbing one eye, yawning, and sitting down at the table. Leigh had just finished the bacon by then (which he couldn't believe he had been able to afford yesterday) and went to make toast for them as a second pajama clad figure shuffled into the room, doing much the same things that Ty had just done and sitting down across from him, yawning. Leigh tried and failed to suppress a grin as both eyes widened at the meal before them and looked up at him gratefully, both exclaiming their thanks at the same time. His happiness at seeing them both so excited evaporated as he thought of how sad it was that bacon and eggs was such a miracle to them. He didn't have to keep up the illusion of happiness much longer, for a minute later his mother stirred and muttered something.

"Mom?" he asked cautiously, hoping she was in a passive mood this morning.

"Wha's goin' on?" she asked groggily. "Got the biggest hangover… what happened last night?" Leigh didn't answer. He didn't want to talk about what happened last night. "How could you let me drink that much beer?" she asked angrily. Leigh was surprised at this question ever though he had heard it before. How could he be expected to stop her drinking? He had tried before, it hadn't ever worked.

"Mom… mom, please, just get up, you'll be late for work." He muttered, staring at the floor as opposed to his mother. She seemed to think was a good idea, as she got up off her couch, still in her work outfit, and walked out the door. There was a moments silence after she left, awkwardly broken by Leigh saying, "Well… dig in."

After breakfast, Leigh thought he'd take Kayla and Ty somewhere nice. Ty had never seen a movie in theatres before, and he decided to bring them there. Both Leigh and Kayla wanted to see the newest big horror movie out (which they saw later with Ben and May), but they thought it would be too extreme for the five-year-old Ty, so they went to see a PG-13 movie about an engaged couple with family problems. Leigh had recently gotten a large sum of money (considering what he normally got) from a particularly generous, rich, elderly man that gave him the ability to do these special things for his siblings. He silently thanked the man as he walked out of the movie theatre and suggested that they have lunch and then go to the local park. It had a playground that Ty played on for about fifteen minutes while Kayla and Leigh watched, occasionally going out to play with him, before he found an abandoned football in some bushes and they went out to the grassy area beside the playground and all three of them played together until the sun started setting, at which point they all went home, tired but happy. There the mood changed.

They were halfway done with dinner when their mother stumbled in early, drunk once again. She had had a bad week, she usually wasn't this bad. Instead of walking to and falling over on the couch as she usually did, she turned towards the three of them, a dull, angry look in her eyes. Each child knew what was coming, and four things happened simultaneously. Kayla made a small noise and ran into the bedroom, not wanting to watch, Ty backed into a corner of the dirty kitchen, looking scared, and Leigh stepped in front of the small child, trying to reason with his mother.

Angeline Storm had once been a happy, kind young mother with two young children and the love of her life, Johnny Storm. She had a good part-time job, though most of the money was brought in by Johnny. She was used to an extravagant life, and the expensive life she had always led continued in a large, expensive apartment with expensive clothes and expensive things. Then Johnny died.

He had been diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor caused by colon cancer. She had been in labor with Ty when she had overheard the news: Johnny was dying. The doctors had not meant her to hear it, but she had. During that time, something in her brain cracked, and a correlation was made between the death of her husband and the birth of her last child. The boy had always reminded her of his death, and she hated him for it, somehow blamed him. Soon afterwards, she was unable to keep her job due to the stress and lost her apartment. She became a waitress and went into a depression during which she became addicted to alcohol and went virtually insane. Whenever she was too stressed, she drank, and sometimes she took out her anger on the youngest son she despised.

Currently she advanced towards Ty, glaring at the boy standing in front of him.

"Mom… come on, let's get you to bed," Leigh said, knowing in his heart that he might as well have said nothing at all. "You look tired." Instead of trying to think about and having to respond to what Leigh had said, she glared at him and said,

"Outta th' way. 'S all his _fault_!"

"No. Mom, let's go to bed." He said, more firmly this time. His eyes became defiant and his hands balled into fists at his side.

"Move!" she yelled, shoving Leigh harshly so he hit a wall. He could hear Kayla crying in the other room. He steadied himself just in time not to fall against the wall, but his mother was already to Ty. She was screaming an incoherent stream of curses and insults, and she kicked the cringing child in the stomach. He doubled over and cried out. When he heard the cry, Leigh felt a fierce desire, a _need_, to protect his brother.

"Mom, STOP!" he yelled, running at her. He grabber her arm, which was drawn back in a fist, and kept her from wildly swinging at the trembling five-year-old on the floor. She turned towards him angrily and used her other hand to slap him directly in the face so hard he let go, staggered backwards, and saw stars. He blinked, disoriented for a second, and then heard Ty cry out for the second time. He ran at his mother again, not thinking. He tackled her like a football player would, pushing her away from his little brother. She tumbled over and her head hit the table hard with a loud thud. She slumped to the floor, unconscious, as Leigh stared, horrified, at what he had just done. There was a very long, loud silence, only broken by small sniffles made by Ty. Leigh stared at his mother, entranced, before tearing his eyes away and turning to his brother, the instinctual need to protect returning. He dropped to his knees and took his little brother in his arms. He was bleeding a little from his nose and there was a small bruise next to his eye, but the important part was not his physical state. "It's okay." He said comfortingly, knowing well that it was not. Tears started to run down Ty's already tear streaked face. Leigh swallowed his own tears and comforted his brother, cleaning his nose and getting him ready for bed. Then he went to Kayla and did the same.

Leigh's home life had been like this ever since his father died. He felt it always would be, and it did continue until he was seventeen years old.


	4. The Fight

A/N: The original title for this chapter was "Three Years Later." As the name suggests, there is a three year time skip in between chapters three and four.

Ben awoke to the distressed mewls of a hungry cat and fell out of bed as Kovu leapt lightly off his chest onto the floor. He hit head first and muttered "Stupid cat…" with a voice that was much deeper than it had been three years ago. He walked into the other room and filled the cat bowl with food before returning to his room to dress. He passed a mirror and couldn't help grinning, thinking about how he had looked the day he had gotten the adventurous, frisky cat. Although his natural frame was still thin, muscles were now firmly established all over on the once skin-and-bone boy. His face was not as thin as it had once been, and he looked much like his father had, but with jet-black hair that, instead of being combed back from his face in the penultimate picture of nerdhood, formed bangs over his forehead and was slightly untidy, and his eyes were a deep sapphire blue instead of brown.

Ben found a pair of clean enough jeans on the floor and put them on. He was picking up a plain red tee shirt off the floor when May stirred in the other room. They had gotten a wall put in the middle of the large room they had once shared so that they each had their own room. May, then a thin young girl, had become a lovely young woman, much resembling her mother. Her hair now reached the small of her back and framed a face with an almost delicate nose, forest green eyes now accented with hardly-needed makeup, and full lips rose-red from lipstick. She got up and started applying said makeup after putting on a pair of jeans and a three-quarter length shirt. The shirt was light green and the opening for the neck came from one shoulder to the other, dipping down into a "V" in the middle. Underneath it she wore a white garment resembling a spaghetti strap shirt, and it was visible in the dip.

After breakfast, Ben took out his cell phone and called Leigh, inviting him over. Within five minutes, Leigh was there, clad in a black tee shirt and a pair of jeans that were ripped on both knees due to age and overuse. All of his jeans had been like that for as long as Ben could remember. With him were the now eight-year-old Ty, still small and skinny in a blue shirt that looked too big for him and what looked like a pair of Leigh's old jeans, and Kayla, who was wearing jeans like everyone else and was wearing a plain purple tee shirt.

Leigh grinned at the pair of them and they traveled into Ben's room, where a small television and an Xbox resided. Ben popped in his favorite video game, "Batman Beyond," and snatched up a controller. May and Leigh both took one as Kayla and Ty found a place to watch. Before Ben could do anything, May had chosen Batman, just like always. "Crap!" Ben exclaimed before choosing Robin. He hated playing as Robin, but he'd sooner play as him than a villain. Leigh, who didn't care one bit who he was, took The Joker and a game fest began, with Ty and Kayla taking the loser's controller every now and then.

Twelve hours later, Leigh took his younger siblings to a pair of friend's houses, where they were spending the night, and promised to be back in a minute. He never let the pair stay at home past five without him, especially Ty.

Ben checked to make sure he had his car keys in his back pocket before they left to go see a late-night movie and walked out to his car. Leigh was already standing beside it when they reached it.

Seeing the keys hanging out of Ben's pocket, Leigh snatched them and jumped into Ben's car. This was a simple task, as the small car didn't have a top at the moment. It was at least twenty years old; it was boxy like all old cars and the red paint was peeling in a couple of places. Still, Ben loved the old car, and he was determined not to get rid of it until it was impossible to get running. May thought his love for the car was ridiculous. Ben thought that women just didn't understand these things.

Seeing that he would not be able to drive his beloved car, Ben frowned a little. However, he accepted the fact quickly and yelled "Shotgun!" before jumping into the passenger seat. That left May in the back.

When they left the movie theatre after the movie, the moon was shining brightly above them, surrounded by an array of twinkling stars.

"It's a beautiful night." mentioned May, looking up at the sky. Ben and Leigh looked up for a second, and then Ben looked at his watch. "It's almost midnight! Curfew!" he yelped.

At that exact moment, he heard a crash and screams behind him up the street. He looked in the direction of the crash, yanked May and Leigh into the alleyway beside them, and stripped off his jeans and shirt, throwing them beside him. Leigh and May did the same, and all three pulled masks out from under the rest of the suit simultaneously and put them on. They looked exactly the same as they always had- except a considerable amount taller. Leigh was to the scene in less than a second, and the twins tried to keep up as best they could, using webs to assist themselves. When Ben saw the figure causing the mayhem, he froze entirely.

Standing before him was a man, at least six foot four and built like a body builder, wearing a suit that was red except on his hands and feet, which were black. The black on his feet and hands faded into the deep red of his suit, and dark black lines that looked almost like cracks in dry, desert sand ran through the whole suit and mask. The mask only covered to below his nose, and he was currently looking over at the trio and grinning. His canine teeth were large and sharp, and looked almost like fangs to Ben. It felt to Ben that he was spiraling into the past. It was the figure of the monster that had killed his father.

No one saw Ben's eyes widen behind his mask, but everyone saw his back slam hard into a wall as the villain threw his entire body through the air with one arm. He hit the wall with such force that it cracked. His head hit and he blacked out, coming back a few seconds later. He was now pinned to the cracked wall by one, large hand, enforced by large arm muscles and squeezing out his ability to use his windpipe. At the same time, he felt a slicing pain that tore through his stomach and lower chest. The hand that was not pinning Ben to the wall had slashed him; all five fingers looked like large claws beneath the suit. The pain brought Ben back more than anything. His stupor was broken, and a rage he had only known once before shot through his veins like poison. His hand shot to his neck, where he tried to pry the suffocating fingers off of his throat. He pinched the nerve between the black thumb and forefinger, and it retracted just enough for Ben to use all of his strength to push it off. He ducked under the man's arm grabbed his wrist, and struck him hard where his elbow was. He threw his whole body weight into the strike, and he heard the elbow crack as well as saw it bend slightly in the wrong direction. Still holding on to the monster's wrist, he heard another snap as his fist connected to his enemy's nose. Blood was on his knuckles, and was flowing freely from the nose he had just hit. The man wrenched his broken arm away using the muscles in his back and fled. Ben tried to run after him, but he felt his friends, whom he had forgotten entirely, holding him back. "LET GO!" he yelled, struggling against them.

"Ben, calm down!" May yelled back, restraining him until he stopped struggling. It took a while for him to come back to himself. He looked around him and saw how people were staring. "You're hurt; we need to get you home!" He ignored her, though he knew it was true. She and Leigh let go of his arms, and he immediately shot up a web and swung out of sight.

Leigh saw what Ben was doing before he even did it, but his body wouldn't respond to his brain. Finally, he bolted after his best friend, frantically shouting his name. "BEN! BEN!" He ran into the dark corners of the city, leaving May behind in a cloud of dust.

It took Leigh hours to find Ben. He was sitting on top of a tall office building, his back to Leigh. It was only by chance the he had seen him, and he climbed up the stairs to the roof slowly. He was exhausted and irritated, but he stuffed those emotions away and forced calm and sympathy to drive him. "Ben… I think it's time to come home." Ben remained with his back to Leigh, and didn't acknowledge his existence, much less respond. "May was right, you look hurt. It's time to go. Let's get you home." Ben remained silent.

Trying to relieve some of the tension radiating off Ben, Leigh sat down next to him and followed his line of vision, looking out at the horizon. He made one last-ditch effort to get Ben home. "Come on, let's go. Sitting here isn't going to do anything." When he still didn't get any response, Leigh sighed. "Look, Ben, I know what you're thinking. But getting revenge on this guy isn't going to help anything. Your dad wouldn't want this." At this, Ben spoke.

"How would you know what my dad would want?" He seethed, his voice a dangerous whisper. His entire body seemed to generate a livid hatred. Leigh could almost feel a sort of heat coming from it. His voice started to rise with each syllable of his next sentence. "How would I know, he's not here anymore, thanks to this bastard!" He stood up, shouting now. "Don't you pretend you know him! Don't pretend you ever knew him!"

"Ben… I know what it's like to lose a father." Leigh said quietly. He silently invited Ben to sit back down. Ben didn't move from his spot.

"Yeah, I guess so! So if you were in my shoes, you'd do nothing to avenge him? He was your dad's _best friend_! I bet he'd be real proud of you, sitting here doing _nothing_!" Ben's voice was soaked with a stinging, malicious sarcasm.

It was Leigh's turn to stand up. Ben had never said anything like this to him before. Was Ben saying that Johnny Storm would be _ashamed_ of him? For trying to _save_ his best friend? For the first time he felt his emotions rising beyond his control. It was the straw that broke the camel's back.

"What was that?" Leigh's voice was deadly quiet. He was shouting before he knew it, barely paying attention to what he was saying, but by the time he finally tuned in to his own irate rant, he didn't care enough to stop himself.

"-You're so fucking self-centered! Have you ever stopped to think that you affect other people too? I'm so sick of your damn pity-party! He's dead, alright?!" Everything he had been thinking the whole conversation came spilling out. "_He's never coming back! Getting yourself killed isn't gonna-_"

The impact of Ben's fist against Leigh's jaw nearly knocked him over. He still had enough control over himself not to cause Ben bodily harm, but barely. He could feel his brain giving the command to let his arm fly and then cutting it off right before his body obeyed. Neither of them said a word, but glared heatedly at one another, each daring the other to move.

"Leave." Ben finally growled.

"Gladly." Leigh returned. He turned his back to Ben and descended the stairs, fervently regretting ever coming up them in the first place.


	5. Monster

A/N: Hey, guys! (I say as the crickets chirp) I'm starting this back up again, and I'll be posting chapters weekly. Enjoy!

Thane Kieran Sullivan brooded in the dark building. It stunk of mold even after all Thanes renovations, and no electricity went to it, so he had to use candles for light in areas without windows. Of course, what else could be expected from a building abandoned so long? Thane thought it might have once been a company building of some kind, but it hadn't been used in years when he found it. As it was, the only room he ever used was the basement. He had reinforced the weak walls and covered them with an inch and a half of titanium. If the rest of the building burned to the ground, which was likely, this area would be completely safe. A small cot was on the far side of the large room, and right next to it was a small desk with a shattered mirror at which he sat. This had been home for the past eight years; he worshipped it as sacred because this was where the Spirit first came to him.

The Spirit had started coming to him after his defeat by Spiderman, sometimes only as a voice, sometimes as a being too bright to look at directly. It was not an angel or demon or any other ridiculous figment of the rest of humanity's imagination. It was a being incomprehensible that he only knew as the Spirit. It had told him he was special; he had a mission, a mission that would make him as great as even the Sprit itself. It was often pleased with him, but when it discovered the children of the only one strong enough to ever defeat Thane was alive, it was enraged. It had punished him in its rage; hurting his mind and forcing his body to punish itself, even through his promises that he had not known, that he could not have. It had told him that he could not achieve Greatness until they were dead, as humiliated and beaten as Thane had been when the Spirit took over his body and saved him from death. He could not remember that incident, the Spirit would not allow him to remember his humiliation, but he knew that it had killed the man that had threatened Thane's life. Thane was too important to die. He had to complete his mission to become one of the few that were Great.

He had followed the movements of the Spider-children, "Tarantula" and "Nephila," as the press called him at their urging, since they had been discovered. Countless charts and lists on paper were scattered all over the desk, all listing the children's different powers and possible or definite weaknesses. There were diagrams estimating every physical aspect of both of them; there were even some charts of their friend, whom Thane was not that interested in. He was right in the middle of this when Nathaniel stepped in.

Nathaniel Keith Rodin was Thane's young companion, whom Thane had rescued from the streets when he was a small boy. He was thin, with straw-colored hair that had a hint of red, blue-gray eyes, a slightly long, thin, and pointed nose which sat squarely above a pair of very red lips and a smaller chin. He was almost the opposite in appearance to the muscular Thane with his red eyes, snow white hair, and large nose and chin. He was a calm and quiet twenty-one year old, rational, slow to act, and often considered either weak or kind by his fellows. He was presently standing in the doorway of Thane's small "bedroom."

"I've finished reinforcing the walls and I've put the restraints in." he said, not letting Thane know his stomach was knotting up just thinking about what they'd be used for.

"Good." Thane said shortly. "It's time to go after them. Get some rest. We'll get them tomorrow." He got up from his chair and moved two feet over to his cot. When he laid down in it, his knees hung over its end. He was far too big for this cot. Nathaniel left the room silently to go back to his dorm.

As the young man walked down the dark street, a familiar guilt gripped him. This entire mess was his fault. If only he had been able to fully heal Thane…

Little did he know Thane had never been normal, even before his birth.

While his newlywed parents were enjoying a nice dinner at a romantic restraunt, a small portion of the symbiote Carnage found its way into his mother's food. She had been pregnant with Thane at the time and the symbiote bonded with his small zygotic form. It had caused him to be born with symbiote like characteristics such as his great height, naturally large muscles, sharp, fanglike teeth, and a long tongue. The fact that he was albino may also have been a side effect. He could create blades or hooks of any size to come directly out of his bones, and he could get inside the minds of others to make them relive their worst memories or live out their worst fears, though he discovered these years into his life. The most important result of this dangerous mixture was the symbiotic instincts that came with it.

He had not seemed significantly more aggressive than other children until an incident in second grade drew his parents' attention to it. The entire class had been doing crafts when another boy reached for the glue Thane had been using. Thane then slammed his fist down on the boy's hand, crushing several of the small bones in it. The boy started crying and sniffled an insult, calling Thane a "red-eyed freak." Thane immediately reacted by beating the child senseless, even penetrating his skin with a pair of safety scissors and knocking him unconscious before the teacher had the chance to restrain him. When asked later why he did this, he reported that he felt no anger towards the other boy, and could not explain his actions. It had been true that he did not _look_ angry when he attacked as much as he looked emotionless, even almost excited, the teacher reported.

After this, his parents took him directly to a psychologist for "anger management therapy" and stressed as much as they could how wrong violence was. He seemed to do well until another incident which caused them to believe Thane did not suffer from anger management problems but a much more deep set, bigger problem. He randomly attacked a fifth grader during physical education, beating the girl with his fists and choking her, eventually sending her to the emergency room. When the teacher tried to pull him off the girl, he struggled so fiercely that she dropped him and he fractured his arm on the hard ground. His parents took him in for an X-ray and brain scans.

If they had simply asked him, they may have known the problem to begin with, though after hearing the news they rather would have stayed completely in the dark. Since he was born, Thane had heard two voices in his head. One was an obviously human voice, possessing the selfish desires of humanity but also possessing compassion and love. The other voice was purely destructive, a hateful voice craving nothing but devastation and suffering for others, and power for itself. It was the voice of the symbiote. The two voices were in constant combat, each wanting different things. At such a young age, he could not cope with these stresses, and they created a split personality. When the "symbiote" voice won out over the "human" voice, a cold, selfish, uncaring, and violent personality sprung from him, one that would agree with everything the symbiote said. His other personality, the "main" personality, fiercely wanted to listen to his "human" voice, but often gave way to the intense desires of the symbiote instincts, which often led to his second personality taking over for a time.

The brain scans at the hospital revealed some of this to Thane's parents.

"I'm sorry to say that these scans reveal some strange and tragic news." Were the first words they heard, coming from a man in an official looking white coat. Of course, he was used to giving bad news, and he heard his voice almost adopt a monotonous sound as he said, "This is a normal seven year old brain. Notice the small area of black- it almost looks like a 't'- here in the middle of the scan." He said, pointing at the picture he held on top of a small stack of papers and X-ray print outs. It was hard to put this in terms that most people would understand, without scientific terms. "This is your son's brain. See how the black area there is much bigger? This indicates lack of brain tissue there, and that is a sign that your son may be schizophrenic. We will evaluate him on that as soon as possible. It is one of the strangest things I've ever seen… It's the youngest case I've ever encountered of this disorder. This though…" his voice picked up a different tone as the flipped the brain scan to the bottom of the stack, "…is _the _strangest thing I've ever seen. Look at your boy's arm. There are what look like little… _spikes_, or hooks, jutting out from every bone we looked at. After seeing it in the arm, we looked over his entire body. I've never seen anything like it. It almost looks… inhuman. With your permission, I would like to find a team of scientists to study this case. Perhaps they can uncover what's going on, maybe even help him."

Thane's parents agreed to the research, and, looking very close to tears, they left their only child, not knowing they would never see him again.

The scientists did research on Thane for months, always being sure to restrain him, telling him that it was because they needed to make sure he was "absolutely still" for the research. They studied him, injecting him with chemicals and examining every inch of his body, even his DNA. At one point a scientist mentioned Thane's irregular bone growths and other characteristics and suggested,

"Do you think that he is perhaps somehow connected to the alien species we encountered a few years ago? That extremely aggressive race life-form that was infesting people? Perhaps he is somehow linked to them. Look at the similarities- elongated tongue, though it's not forked-"

"He looks like Kiss- so what?" interrupted the other scientist. The man held in an exasperated sigh.

"It's not just that. There are others- see how his canines are overdeveloped and sharp? Almost like fangs, aren't they? All his teeth are a little sharp and pointy-looking if you ask me. He's incredibly strong for a seven year old, and extremely aggressive." He hesitated before continuing. "And those formations on his bones… What if he could make them grow or jut out, anywhere he wanted? Doesn't that look like an adaptation of the formations those beings could create?" He waited apprehensively for the shocked researcher's response.

"That's ridiculous!" the man finally scoffed. "We work in the realm of _science_, not science_ fiction_! Give me a plausible theory or nothing at all!"

The scientists parted, both looking disgruntled. Little did they know that having that discussion in Thane's seemingly unconscious presence was the biggest mistake they'd ever made. He had decided he was tired of all these experiments. For once his human voice and his symbiote voice, one craving freedom, the other destruction, said the same thing: "Kill them and get yourself out." As he heard this conversation, he felt his normal self slipping away as his ruthless second personality took over.

He endured the experiments for three more days before fully discovering how to control his newfound power. It was like the scientist had said- he could change them to practically any size or length he wanted. On the third day, in the middle of yet another scan, Thane broke out. The weak restraints were laughably easy to break. A manic surge went through the young boy as an intense feeling of power coursed through him. The evil gleam in his eyes and twisted grin made every scientist recoil in fear before he slaughtered every one of them. He finally turned to the last quivering scientist, standing motionless several feet away.

"Please I-I have a f-family, and k-kids your age! They n-n-need their father!" the man desperately begged. Thane raised his hand from his side slowly, giving the man a last chance to provide him with a reason to let him live. The scientist's eyes widened as he cried his final plea. "Please, don-" Time was up. He was cut off mid-sentence as a pair of razor-sharp blades pierced through his eyes to the back of his skull. Thane retracted the weapons and watched the last body fall to the floor before making his escape.

He spent most of his life in solitude from that point on, stealing food and clothing, occasionally taking lives. At the age of eleven, his second personality decided that he could handle the things it had done in his body and revealed itself to him, flooding him with its memories. In his early twenties he found a young, starving orphan- Nathaniel- and found he somehow cared for the child. He took the boy under his wing, which proved most useful once Thane discovered his abilities.

Thinking about all the things that had happened in his lifetime, Nathaniel was surprised to find himself in front of his dorm door. He opened it wearily and collapsed onto his bed. He needed rest. He had work to do tomorrow.


	6. Trap

A/N: Hey, everyone! I thought I'd take this space today to say a couple of things: first of all, if you can, PLEASE review this story. Even if you didn't like it, even if you hated it, I'm always craving more contructive criticism! So, please, I'd love to hear your reviews! Also, a second (and in my opinion more important, haha) note is this: on the sister site for this site (fiction press) I have an original work I have written. It's a script, and I plan to make a student film out of it over the summer. However, I really want others' feedback on it, so I'm putting it on fictionpress, updating twice a week, and I'd be extremely grateful if you guys would go and check it out. It's really important to me that I get reviews and contructive criticism on this particular work (even more than usual!) because I'll be making a movie out of it and I want to make it the best I can! Here's the link: .com/s/2762240/1/Blood_Redemption Thanks a ton! *Edit* okay, so it's not letting me post the link (probably a rule I've forgotten, haha), so you can do one of two things to get to the story if you want. You can either type in fictionpress in url bar and then copy and paste this: .com/s/2762240/1/Blood_Redemption at the end of it, or you can go to www. fiction press .com (except without any of the spaces) and search Blood Redemption and scroll down. It's the story by me, Zandorv :). Once again, thanks, everyone!

"May? Yeah, I found Ben. He wouldn't come home." Leigh said. His anger had ebbed slightly overnight, and he called May on the clear, sunny morning that somehow seemed overcast to him to tell her what had happened.

"Oh, I wish I'd been the one to find him! I would have _forced_ him to come back! I looked all night for him and now he's not coming back because he's in a bad mood. Doesn't he realize there's someone else going through _exactly_ what he is!?" May vented angrily, feeling all the rage that had built up since yesterday directing itself towards Ben. When she had finally finished, she sighed "Sometimes he's such an idiot. We're going to have to go looking for him again today."

"Alright." Leigh mumbled grudgingly. "I'll be over in just a minute. Then we can go find him." Not all Leigh's frustration was gone. In fact, he was frustrated enough that he didn't notice a curious and determined young boy eavesdropping on the conversation and following Leigh out the door.

May waited only a few minutes for Leigh, who took his old, beaten up car instead of running. He might be able to go the speed of light, but May wouldn't want to split up, so it would probably be faster. He showed up at the door lacking the usual gleam of mischief in his eyes; it was replaced by worry and sleeplessness. "Come on, let's go get him." He said tensely. By now, all the anger Leigh might have felt towards his best friend had vanished, replaced with fear that he might have gotten himself killed.

Leigh would never forgive himself if that happened.

May followed Leigh to his car, sensing his fear. She put a comforting hand on his shoulder and gripped it in reassurance. Everything was going to be okay. They would find him. Little did she know that she wasn't the only one looking for Ben.

Nathaniel stared at his master as he laid out his plan. They were to make a huge scene somewhere in the city- near the last one they had made. The little heroes were sure to come running to investigate, especially the ones related to Spiderman. Surely they would want their revenge, and would be looking for anything that could possibly be Thane. There they would cause as much mayhem as possible, killing bystanders, destroying building parts, whatever they had to do to get the attention of their prey. Once it was there, it would be a simple matter to capture them. Thane could probably subdue and capture them, and if he couldn't, Nathaniel could just injure them badly enough that they fainted. What happened afterwards could be thought out later. The plan made Nathaniel feel sick. He would have to use his abilities to hurt someone. He had only done that once before… and never had he done it on purpose. Why was he doing this? It wasn't right, no matter what he owed Thane. Not wanting to think about it, he pushed the thought to the back of his mind and followed Thane outside. Time to carry that plan out.

May twitched her leg in an irritated fashion in the car. She wanted to get out, wanted to run, wanted to scream, and, most of all, wanted to beat Ben senseless. But she kept herself under control, without too much difficulty. This wasn't the first time he'd done something incredibly stupid, and she was sure he'd be fine. But now that she was thinking about it, maybe she should get out and search around- he might be on top of a building. But that would mean she and Leigh would have to split up, and she didn't want that happening again, in case Leigh found him and was unable once again to convince him to come home. Surely this time, though, he would make Ben come if he wouldn't of his own accord. Ben's life was more important than his temper. She sighed. It was stupid to keep worrying like this. What happened would happen, and there wasn't any sense in- She snapped her head up automatically, her hair whipping from her right shoulder to her left with a snap. Spider sense. What-

Then she saw it. A huge explosion at the top of a skyscraper just a few streets down. Was it a bomb? What was going on? She could hear people screaming as they ran from the scene. Ben would have to wait.

"Leigh-"

"I'm a step ahead of you."

And he was. He pulled the car over to the side without warning, and May jumped out before it had really stopped. He was right behind her, yanking the keys out of the ignition and leaping out. They both already had donned their masks and were stripping out of their outer clothes. She shot out a web in the right direction and Leigh ran. They met at about the same time at the rooftop, seeing the cause of the mayhem simultaneously. May felt a ripple of vengeful fury roll through her, but she controlled it; she was apt at controlling emotions. Much better at it than Ben. What was important right now was keeping Gorefest, as the press had named him, from hurting anyone else. Along with the little sidekick he had next to him. Not much of an impressive figure, she had to admit. It was easy to tell due to the skintight suit that he was thin, not much muscle on him at all. The suit he wore was a light blue, darker blue down the sides. His mask was the same, light blue with a dark blue stripe down the middle. On his forehead, a white plus sign contrasted the dark blue, with an angry, scarlike red slash cutting diagonally across it. The mask itself did not cover all of his pale face, but resembled a widow's peak that curved sharply down to a point at the end of his nose as opposed to his hairline. The rest of the mask arched right over his eyes and went around his head. The rest of his face would have been completely visible had it not been for the fact that it came back up and curved under his cheekbones, making a straight line down perpendicular to his mouth and dipping back upwards to cover his chin. She didn't know what he could do, but if she could get near him, there wouldn't even be a fight. She could snap those little scrawny arms in two. He would be the one she would go for first, in case he did anything sly while she was distracted with Gorefest. Leigh could distract him for a moment. She rushed at the sidekick, who stood frozen in shock for a split second, then close his eyes tight. That was stupid. How did he expect-

May dropped and let out a cry as she felt a large slash rip down her leg and saw blood begin to gush from a fresh wound. What happened? Nothing had-

She let out another cry as a slash on her stomach opened up. Now she understood. She looked up at the young man she had been about to attack, and saw that his eyes were now open and concentrated on her. When she looked into those grey eyes, she saw sympathy and pity behind them. He didn't want to do this. She could use that. She gave him her most pleading look as another unknown injury caused blood to dribble from her mouth. Her vision was going. What had he done? Her head drooped to the ground and she prepared herself for blackout. It never came. In fact, she felt her wounds healing almost instantaneously. She looked at her stomach. Blood covered her suit, but the gaping wound that had been there was gone as if it had never been. Then she looked up. The sidekick was no longer looking at her, but away at the ground. She could see the guilt in his posture and couldn't help wondering what he was doing with this villain. He obviously didn't belong in that world. But she couldn't ponder anything right now. She had to know what was going on. She rose as she looked to her right, over at Gorefest and Leigh. Leigh was in front of Gorefest, whose back was turned to her. His eyes were glowing an electric green as blue lightning shot from his fingertips. Gorefest seized up every time another bolt hit him, the electricity scrambling his brain and making him unable to move. However, he used every moment he had trying to hurt Leigh, making the hooks he could generate shoot out of him quickly. But Leigh was too fast, dodging them easily. He was doing a good job. She didn't need to worry about him.

She turned back to the sidekick. She had to keep him occupied. He was possibly more dangerous than even Gorefest. If she was right, he could make injuries and heal them, and if he wanted to, all he had to do was sever the arteries connected to their hearts… He probably wouldn't, though. His conscience probably wouldn't let him. Still, he had to have some sort of strange loyalty towards the monster he followed, so she had to be safe. She ran at him while he looked away, feeling guilty herself about taking advantage of his guilt. She wasn't about to hurt him after what he'd done, but she had to subdue him. She shot webs out at him and grabbed his hand, dragging him towards her. She then shot carefully to cover his eyes to confuse him. All in a split second she had his ankles and wrists bound with sticky webs and his eyes covered. He wouldn't be able to get out of it unless she removed the web herself. Just as she'd finished, the fight- and the entire world- stopped for her as she saw a small figure climb up the stairs to the rooftop.

It was Ty.

Ty, wanting to help his big brother, had followed him out and silently hidden in the back of his car while he was too preoccupied to notice. Not being as fast as either Leigh or May, it had taken him longer to get to the scene. He now climbed up the last steps, eager to help but not sure how he was going to.

May looked over at Leigh. His eyes were losing their glow, and the electricity at his fingertips went down to sparks and then disappeared entirely. Gorefest took advantage of the spilt second and stabbed Leigh in the shoulder, and retracted the hook some, drawing Leigh near. He hit him over the head, knocking him out. He then retracted it entirely and Leigh slumped to the ground. Gorefest then turned to see what Leigh had been staring at. May jumped at Gorefest, but he knocked her to the ground as easily as he had knocked Leigh out. Ty's face, when he looked at his brother, went from eager excitement to dismay and anger. As May looked up, she saw his eyes glowing an almost reddish color, and fire began to crawl up first his fingers, then his hands, then his forearms. She looked up as the once clear sky became overcast with black, swelling clouds that threatened horrible storms and now began to clash with thunder and lightning. Her mouth dropped open behind her mask. She didn't know that Ty had powers, and now he was changing the weather. What was he capable of? She stared, stupefied, back at Ty, who had begun rushing Gorefest with his small, burning fists raised. A fireball shot from his hands and burned the villain's leg. But it didn't seem to have much effect. Gorefest stood calmly as a hook shot out of his stomach, piercing Ty right through his chest. Right through his lung. It was then that Leigh regained consciousness. He shook his head, finding his sight just as his little brother received a death wound. Suddenly the gaping hole in his shoulder meant nothing- he couldn't even feel it. His eyes filling with tears of anger and grief, he rose, charging with lightning speed at Gorefest, who didn't even have time to notice. They both flew off the top of the building, falling down towards the ground. But even though Leigh was fueled by rage, he could not match up to Gorefest's sheer strength. He was easily knocked unconscious, and the villain grabbed the side of the building, dislocating his shoulder, before escaping and popping it neatly back into place.

May watched all this from the top and then turned towards the dying Ty. She saw that the sidekick had not moved much and strode over to him, tearing off his blind and bonds and forgetting that he could kill her in a second. She grabbed him by his suit and dragged him across the roof to Ty. "You. Fix. Him." She said, every word broken by rage, hate, fear, and sorrow all at once. "You. FIX HIM!" she repeated. She didn't know Ty very well, but he was Leigh's brother… and he couldn't be older than eight. That monster had just mercilessly killed a child, and she'd be damned if his sidekick didn't set it straight. The sidekick, confused and frightened, had no reason not to heal Ty. Rain began to pour from the dark clouds he had created, washing away blood from the wound's exterior. The sidekick concentrated on the wound, healing it as best he could.

"He'll always have that scar, though. The wound is too deep to fix that." He said, rising and beginning to run down the stairs. May didn't even try to stop him. She had to go and tend to Ty. Even if he wasn't about to die, he had still lost a lot of blood.


	7. Confined

A/N: Hey, guys, thanks for reading! Once again, please, go to fiction press, search "Zandorv" under authors, and read my script there, "Blood Redemption." It needs reviews! Thanks!

Ben struggled uselessly against the bonds that held him as a tall man walked into the room. He was wearing the suit that Ben had wanted revenge on for eight years; now Ben saw the face behind that mask. He had white hair and red eyes; his skin was very pale. He was an albino. He was over six feet tall by a margin and was built like a bodybuilder. He had a large square jaw and a slightly curving nose that seemed to hint cruelty. His teeth were sharp and his tongue was very long; that was part of the effect of his symbiote genes. He grinned cruelly as Ben made a particularly hard struggle against his bonds. Without saying a word, the man walked over to Ben, pulled his mask off, and put the same hand on his head. Ben struggled desperately with his bonds to no avail. The visions he saw were more realistic than any memory. It was as if he was really there:

_Ben was four years old again, and a large pit bull snarled as it stood over him. He had no where to go; he felt a rusted chain-link fence behind him. He started to cry, and the dog lunged. He screamed for help, but the dog was already on him. It ripped into him, tearing at his flesh and hurting him. His four-year old mind raced through thoughts about the dog. He just wanted it gone, he'd never done anything to it, it was Tom that had hit it, he wanted the pain to stop! Please, mommy, daddy, somebody help! Just as he felt the dog's snaps stop, someone was pulling it away-_

_He was ten, and two teenage boys were taking turns holding his head under water, pretending to drown him. They were angry at him for some reason- he wasn't sure why anymore. He gasped for air as his head and body came out from under the water, only to get water sucked into his lungs as he was plunged back in. his hands were tied together with shoestrings because he had tried to hit the angry boys so much. Suddenly, one of the boys fell on the slippery bank of the river they were at, and Ben was swept away by the current. He couldn't breathe, he couldn't move- he struggled to untie the knots that held his hands together, unable to fight the current with only his legs. His lungs screamed at him, and just as the shoestrings fell away and he was able to swim-_

_He was eight. His father, Spiderman, was fighting another villain, and he was watching eagerly. He cheered his father on as he fought the "bad guy" and was sure of his victory. His dad had hurt him so badly, there was no way he could fight back anymore. His dad started to limp away from the scene, exhausted, when Ben saw something. He watched in horror, and tried to scream through the television screen. His father couldn't hear him as the loser of the battle used the last of his strength to rise. He stood as best he could, and as Spiderman turned around, a huge, hook-like protrusion made out of what appeared to be bone came out of the man's body. It pierced him right through the heart on the left side of his chest. Spiderman let out a cry as the blade went all the way through his back and pulled out with a sickening sound. Ben was in tears, watching his father die without anything he could do to help. He started to hit the television screen uselessly as if it would somehow help his father. He looked one last time at the monster on the screen that had killed his father, and swore revenge. He felt an anger and hatred deeper than he had ever known. The thing staggered off, forgotten, as the crowd took the body away. Ben noticed most of them were in tears, but one of them felt as he did. He ran to his room, not knowing what to do, and- _

The man took his hand off Ben's head. Ben was drenched in sweat, and he felt tears on his cheeks. He lunged, nearly sobbing, at the man in front of him, forgetting his bonds. He struggled for a minute, then, exhausted, stopped struggling entirely. He simple put as much anger and malice as he could into the glare he gave the albino man in front of him- the one who had killed his father.

The man simply chuckled, and left. All Ben's emotion and strength had spent itself, but he still tried to struggle against his bonds. His arms and wrists began to ache from being held in the same position, over his head, supporting most of his weight, for so long. He didn't care. He couldn't care about anything. After a minute, he just stopped moving. It was quiet enough for him to hear the conversation on the other side of the door, though he wasn't really listening.

"Yes, I'll make sure all his endorphins are down as much as I can make them. Yes, I'll put his substance P up to the highest level I can. A paper cut would have him in agony." An unfamiliar voice was saying. The voice didn't sound happy about any of this information. It sighed, and said, "Thane, are you sure this is necessary? I know the boy is his son, but do we really-" Ben didn't hear the quiet response clearly, but it sounded angry. "…Alright." Was the defeated response it got. Light flooded in, momentarily blinding Ben as someone opened the door. He was confused by the slight figure before him, not sure what the man was supposed to do. He didn't see any reason to be afraid of this man, but his instincts seemed to think so. The man sighed and muttered, "Why am I doing this?" to himself in a quiet, pained voice. Then his face changed to a look of concentration, and Ben's confusion was consumed by agony. He heard screams echoing through the room, unsure that such a sound could some from his throat. He could feel the cut, which had appeared like magic. It wasn't deep, why did it hurt so much? The pain was fading now, the wound was healing up quickly. He had no time to think before another, fresh wound, deeper this time, sliced through his torso. The screaming echoed through the room again, and the wound began to heal itself again. A third cut came, and then a fourth, then a fifth. The cuts were no longer waiting to heal themselves before ripping his skin open again. He wasn't sure how long this continued, he only knew his every nerve was on fire, and he couldn't bear it. He heard his own hoarse voice pleading without his permission. Whatever he had said must have worked, because the man causing his injuries gave his own pained cry and stopped for a moment. Ben looked down at himself. His suit was soaked with blood, but there were no extra rips in it. He had little time to contemplate this before the pain started again, this time continuing until he lost consciousness.

Leigh awoke, groggily trying to piece his memories together. Where was he? In a dark, shabby old room… Wait. Hadn't he just been falling through the air? Yes, that's what he'd been doing, just a moment ago. He'd jumped off a building because…

Ty.

Grief, anger, and shock pierced through Leigh like white hot knives all at once. He screamed in rage and grief, noticing his bonds as he struggled to move his body. He noticed, but didn't care. He heard his voice shouting Ty's name, but it seemed so distant. He could feel the tears on his cheeks, but it felt so detached. Then his shouts became quiet, pained whispers as sobs began to shudder through him. Another, familiar voice spoke, cautiously calling his name.

"Leigh… Leigh?" mumbled Ben, coming out of his fog as he heard a familiar voice. "What… What is it? What's wrong with Ty? What-" he stopped short as he realized that there was only one thing the agonized calls coming from Leigh could mean. "Oh, Leigh, I'm…" he stopped short, not knowing what to say. "Sorry" just wasn't right. There was nothing to say. After a minute that was an eternity, Leigh's sobs quieted.

His voice was dead as he asked, "Where are we?"

"I'm not sure." Ben answered, his own voice somber.

Another eternity of silence passed between them. Ben reflected on everything that had happened because of his quest for revenge. Here they were, probably about to be tortured to death, May would no doubt be caught soon enough, and Ty was now… well, gone. He was only a child. Leigh was right. He _was _entirely selfish. How could he have not seen that this would involve other people? He should have foreseen this disastrous turn of events. Of course they would lose. The thing had defeated a much more experienced hero, without anyone helping. Of course it would turn out badly. How could he have been so consumed by his vengeance? Well, there was nothing he could do about it now. The only thing to do now was think of a way out. But how? Even at full strength he doubted he could get out of these rings- they were made of thick titanium, attached to a titanium wall. Right now there was no way. There didn't even appear to be a key hole, or any other way to take these things off. They definitely weren't supposed to be let go.

Ben's thoughts were interrupted as he heard footsteps coming toward the door. "Do what I do!" Ben whispered urgently.

"What?" was Leigh's only reply. Ben closed his eyes and hung his head just as the door began to open. Leigh hurriedly tried to imitate his friend, but it was too late. The big man coming through the doorway saw him. He was dressed in oddly normal clothes, just jeans and a t-shirt, but was still easily recognizable as the villain Ben had spent so much energy hunting. He smiled, amused, as he saw through Leigh's trick. Leigh reluctantly opened his eyes, aware that he'd been caught. The man's voice was deep, with the slightest hint of menace in it.

"Every day I will take you to a pay phone. You will call for help from the Spider girl. You will give her an address, and she will come." Leigh spat in his face in response. The man chuckled. "You will see." He said simply, as if he were talking to a small child about a concept out of his reach. He put his hand on Leigh's head.

_Leigh was in a hospital, staring at the emaciated Johnny Storm, tears in his eyes. His father was close to dying, he could see it in his eyes, his frame, in the eyes of the nurses who came through to check on him. This may be the last time he would ever see his father. Still, as always, Johnny kept himself in a good mood. "C'mon, kid, it's not so bad. We all have to go some time. And our good friend Dr. Doom's gonna be pissed 'cuz he didn't get to finish me off." He let out a weak laugh. "I'm tired of this old hospital bed anyway. The people here smell funny." Johnny's attempts to make his oldest son laugh backfired, as the tears welled up and spilled over. "Aw, c'mon, don't cry!" He plead. He didn't know how to deal with crying kids. Leigh knew all this, but he couldn't stop crying as he thought of all the things his father and he had done before the cancer, and how he had looked, compared to the skeleton he was now. Most of all, he couldn't stop crying when he thought of his father as nothing more than a gravestone, maybe a statue in the city, just a memory. He couldn't go! It wasn't right, Leigh wouldn't allow it! But he knew there was nothing he could do. He sobbed for his father's death, and his helplessness, and his mother, and his baby brother, who would grow up without a dad. As if he could read his thoughts, Johnny took on a more serious voice. "Listen, Leigh." Hearing his father's command made Leigh's sobs turn into nothing more than small sniffles almost immediately. "You're gonna have to be big enough right now to hear this, okay? I can't say it later." Each word was an effort to say. "That baby you're mom's about to have, he's gonna need you. He's gonna look at you like you're me. Now, you be a better dad to him than I was to you. I know that's a big job. Hell, being a dad was a big job for me, and I was more than twice your age. But just do your best, son. Take care of him for me. Look out for him, protect him, you know? Ah, I was never great with words. I'm starting to repeat myself. I'm sorry for leaving you with all this, Leigh. Sorry about all that. Just look out for him, son." _

_Now he was staring at his father's casket as he was lowered into the ground. He turned his head into his mother's black dress, crying into it, not caring if he looked like he was four years old. There were only a limited number of people allowed at the funeral, just friends and family. The whole city, of course, had wanted to come. He didn't listen as people said good things about Johnny. He just cried. _

_Now Leigh shook his head, shaking off unconsciousness. His vision came back to him, black around the edges, and he did not comprehend what he saw in front of him- Ty, fireballs in his hands, charging the great villain whose neck was the size of Ty's waist. Before Leigh could think straight, a hook went straight through Ty's chest. Everything snapped back into focus. He watched everything in slow motion. Ty fell to the ground, and Gorefest retracted his weapon. Leigh was moving before his brain had time to recognize the rage that flooded through him; he tackled the larger man, filling his every cell with enough tingling electricity to fry an elephant. But before he could release it, he felt something hard hit his head, and he was unconscious again._

"NO!" Leigh screamed. He was jerked out of his experience as suddenly as he had begun it, and grief flooded through him with triple the power. His father's last words to him echoed through his head as his mind played through his little brother's death. _Just look out for him, son._

He didn't notice the large frame lumbering out of the room. He didn't notice his own tears. He didn't notice Ben's attempts at comforting him. He didn't notice anything for a long time. When he finally did notice something, it was excruciating.

Leigh's eyes and mouth popped wide open as an involuntary scream tore out of him, corresponding to the agony that began to rip through his entire body. He could feel cuts an lacerations appearing and healing within seconds; he was only vaguely aware the same thing was happening to Ben beside him. Time lost meaning, and he didn't know whether he had spent minutes or hours in this state when it finally stopped. His breathing was harsh and ragged; his throat was raw from screaming. The villain finally stepped back in the room, looked the shaking boy straight in the eyes, and said,

"Phone?"

Leigh wanted to spit in his face again, but his throat was too dry. The best he could do was rasp out a whispered "No," in defiance. Gorefest shrugged and walked out of the room, seeming unaffected. He was confident Leigh would cave eventually. And if he didn't, well, he was disposable. That was the only reason he was here in the first place.

Three long days of anguish later, Leigh found himself a sweaty, dirty, bloody mess. He wondered if anyone would recognize him if they saw him. He hadn't eaten in three days; he was in a constant state of exhaustion. He was mulling dully through ill-conceived, foggy escape plans when he noticed his smaller torturer walk into the room. He flinched involuntarily, bracing himself for the physical pain that was about to come, and dreading the mental anguish that would come later even more. He waited for what seemed like hours, relaxing ever so slightly in confusion. What was going on? Leigh didn't move as the young man walked towards him, much closer than usual.

"I can't do this anymore." He told Ben and him quietly. "It doesn't matter what Thane says; this revenge is ridiculous, I'm getting both of you out of here."

Huh. That was a surprise.

"Now listen." He continued, "Thane's still here, so I can't do anything now, but I think he'll leave some time tomorrow. I'll get you out then. I can't do anything more than that." That was all he could think to say, so he stood up and walked out the door.

Nathaniel let out a sigh as he closed the door behind him. What was he going to do? None of this was right, nothing was right, of course… But how could he betray Thane. He remembered well the past Thane had rescued him from, and pieces of it echoed through his mind.

Nathaniel was only four years old when it got his powers. He wasn't sure what had happened; he had been playing on a street at the remote edge of a small town when he had been hit by a speeding car. His parents, both very loving and supportive of him at the time, hadn't even known he was outside. When they finally found him bleeding on the road, they were sure he was dead. They rushed him to a hospital anyway. The doctors confirmed something they already knew. He would not make it. But somehow, through some miracle, he did, although he lost all of his memories before the accident. Nathaniel's guess was that some chemical on the road, something he still thought of as a green, radioactive liquid (radioactive toxic waste?) had gotten into his body and caused it to go into overdrive to make it heal. Perhaps most of it had gone to his brain. All he knew for sure, though, was that he started to heal at an astonishing rate, and had fully recovered within a month. From that point on he was the most intelligent person in his school, at his home, anywhere that he knew. He remembered one hundred percent of the facts that were given to him, he could critically analyze better than a college professor, he could do mathematics meant for graduate school students. It was later and slowly that he discovered the other things he could do with his mind.

It started out just healing his own scrapes and cuts when he was beaten up at school (the bullies there didn't take to well to any braniacs, especially a weird one like Nathaniel), but eventually he found that when he was very angry at the bullies, they would get small cuts, too, out of nowhere. After a few weeks of this, they left him alone. Unfortunately, so did all the other kids. They were all afraid of Nathaniel with his odd abilities, and no one would get near him. The students, the teachers, even his own parents became afraid of him. His father became horribly abusive, and his mother neglected him. It was during one episode of abuse, on his sixth birthday, ironically enough, that he lost absolutely everything.

His father was yelling abnormal curses, and giving an abnormal beating, after he had heard that Nathaniel had broken another students arm at school that day.

"It wasn't on purpose!" he sobbed cowering away from his father as his mother watched coldly. "I don't know how I did it, I swear!"

"My ass, you little demon!" He shouted. "You're not my son. My son died in a car accident. I don't know what you are. Now get out of my house!" Terrified, Nathaniel didn't move. "Didn't you hear me, you little monster? Out! He yelled, grabbing a kitchen knife and brandishing it at his son. Suddenly, he lunged, and Nathaniel's heart stopped. He screamed and closed his eyes, waiting for a death blow. Instead what he heard astonished him. Two other screams, his parent's screams, echoed through the room even after they were silenced. He opened his eyes slowly. What had he done? There was no one there at all. No one in the kitchen. Just him, alone. The knife had clattered to the floor inches away from him. His parents were gone.

He started a life on the streets after that, and it was on the street that Thane had found him. In a moment of pity, Thane took him in and raised him as his son. Thane was really the only thing Nathaniel knew. What's worse, Thane's schizophrenia was his fault for not being able to heal him properly after his Spiderman incident. How could he leave him? Where would he go?

For once, Nathaniel had no answers.


End file.
